Spring chair



H. V. THADEN SPRING CHAIR Jan. 2, 1951 Filed June 24, 1946 INVENTOR HERBERT k THADEM I BY M A RNEYS Patented Jan. 2, 1951 SPRING CHAIR Herbert VI Th-aden; Roanoke; was assignon to Thaden/Jordan Flurniture Corporation; Roar noke, va.,, a corporation of Virginia.

Applioation June 2'4;-1946, Serial N b: 6785751 (Cl. 155-509)r 5. Claims.

This invention relatesa to. a chair. which: may

be made of. ply-wood-,.m'e.tali or; other strong, durable; flexible, resilient material. will be described? and: illustrated. in: connection with the use of plywood butit willbe appneciated that other materials; particularly metal, may besubstituted wholly or. in; part. for the; plywood.

Plywood'iis.preferredbecause of its lightWeight, thefacili'ty: with; which; it. can be shaped: or molded, its low heat conductivity compared to thatof metal and its: durability when. exposed to. out of door weather conditions.

An object. of! the invention is. to provide a, chair of simple and relativelyinexpensive construction which will. conform to the, sitting or reclining position of: th'elbody.

A further object is. to. provide a chair which is highly flexible but which isput; together in such: a; way that: the. flexing: does; notv result in breaking stresses.

A further object: of. the invention is to: provide achair: construction, the parts of which may be readily assembled and disassembled and which, when disassembled, may be packed ina relatively small space.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying; drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the chair,

Fig. 2 is a side view of the chair in erect position,

Fig. 3 is a side View of the chair in reclining position,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion ofi the chair partially disassembled and with portions broken away showing the meansv for assembling the parts of the chain,

Fig. 5' is an enlarged perspective View with parts disassembled showing the hinge connection between the rear leg and the bracing portions of the: chair,

Fig. 6 is. a. plan. view of the. back, seat: and front leg. part oi. the. chair. straightened: outi into a plane, and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a portion of the chair showing a modified form of arm.

The several chair parts are preformed to substantially the shapes illustrated in the drawings.

In making the chair of plywood, I prefer to use plywood of about inch thickness which has been found to be amply strong and at the same time to have the desired high flexibility. If other material such as sheet metal is substituted for the plywood, it should have a corresponding strength and flex bility. Flexibility is highly important in my chair structure because The inventionit; permits; the. chair to; conform to. the: shape; of;

the persona resting: in: and thus. not; only ontributes tothe=com-fortzot the person hlltfilSQ'diS-w tributes; the: Weight so: that weight; and stress-is not snffi-cient-ly concentrated at any particular point. to; cause breakage of, the chair. In; this. connection. it isznotedr. that the: chair. is so con.- structed that no area thereof is: rigidly; held; against, flexu-re. Itisessential in, order toavoid breakage: to permit every part: of the cha r. flex: freely so as. to distribute: the strainswto. which it. is subjected;

Other features of the, invention: will be noted;

in: the; following detailed descriptionor. the em-rhodiments; illustrated in the drawings.

R fer in to: they drawings. I: is: the back, 2 the;

trated, the upper section of the back is widened.

under the seat just about as illustrated in order tow avoid a. tendency for the; front legs: and; seat toflatten out if the: front legs; are too far for- Ward or to: fold under; it the: front legs are too far back. This could of course be: avoided. by

adding thickness and. stiffness at: the junction of the seat and front. legs; butI" prefer tozmain l tain the. high flexibility of the chair and, to take:

care. of? anyt-endency of the seat and frontlegsi positioning the front.

to: flatten. out. or toefoldz by legs at the-proper angle;

The; front: leg portion. of the. chain may: be, cut;

out as illustrated to reduce the weight of the chair or merely to improve its appearance and the lower edge is provided with the bead 4 which permits the front legs to slide easily on the: floor and without damage to the floor.

The back, seat and front leg part of the chair is supported by the rear leg part 5 and the bracing member 6. The lower edge of the rear leg part 5 is provided with a head 7 similar to the bead 4 on the front legs. The bracing member 6 is hinged to the rear legs 5 by the strap hinges 8 which fit into grooves 9 in the bead 1. Half The; junction. of thexback. and seat.

circular pieces are out out leaving the half circular openings H] in the rear leg part to permit free movement of and access to the hinges 8.

' It will be noted that the rear leg part 5 is relapart 5 and the bracing member 6 together may I be employed.

Any suitable means may be employed for fastening the rear leg part 5 to the back of the chair and'for securing the bracing member 6 to the seat of the chair. I have found the turn button type of fastener known as the Burco fastener commonly used for securing the side curtains of an automobile to be satisfactory for this purpose. It will beunderstood, however, that any other suitable fastening means such as one which permits a hinge movement of the rear leg part with respect to the back may be substi tuted for the Burco fasteners. I have illustrated two pairs of fasteners H and 12 corresponding to the upright and reclining adjustments of the chair. I have shown the bracing member 6 secured to the seat 2 by means of the same kind of fasteners l3 but it will be understood that any other fastening means may be used. The point at which the bracing member 6 is fastened to the seat is important. In the erect position of the chair the bracing member 6 should come into contact with the seat at the fastening means as shown in Fig. 2 but in the reclining position shown in Fig. 3 the bracing member 6 should contact the seat of the chair for a considerable distance back of the fastening means in order to provide additional support to the seat of the chair.

The arms Mas illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4 are highly flexible and are fastened to the back by means of the bolts and thumb nuts and the studs [6 which latter extend through holes in the back but are not fastened. This construction is important. The high flexibility of the arms and the'fastening thereof to the back prevent the application of a breaking stress to the plywood of the back. If the arms were rigid and/or if they were rigidly fastened to the back at two separated points, breakage would be likely to occur.

The form of arm I! illustrated in Fig. '7 is V- shaped in cross-section and is provided with the slit l8 which fits over the edge of the back of the chair and each arm is held in place by the pin 7 is inserted through an opening (not-shown) in the back. This form of arm has the advantage that it'is rigid and affords better support to a person getting out of the chair but it has the dis- '60 advantage that its use may result in some break-' age of the chair back. The flexible arms I4 offer ample support to the arms of a person sitting in the chair but may bend downwardly even to contact the seat of the chair when leaned upon heavil by a person getting into or .out of the chair.

It is noted that the backof the chair is substantially straight, preferably slightly curved, and that the rear leg part 5 and the bracing member 6 are both slightly curved to increase their flexibility.

It is noted further that no portion of the chair is rigidly secured at locations which are spaced from each other transverse to the direction in which such part is flexed.

I claim:

1. A chair comprising a unitary part formed of resilient sheet material and constituting the back, seat and front leg portions of the chair, a rear leg part formed of resilient sheet material having one edge only detachably connected to the back portion of the chair, and a bracing member formed of resilient sheet materialhaving one edge attached to another edge of said rear leg part and another edge detachably connected to the seat portion of the chair.

2. Chair as defined in claim 1 in'which the upper edge of the rear leg part is adjustably attached to the back portion of the chair.

3. Chair as defined in claim 1 in which the rear leg part and the bracing member are hinged to each other.

4. Chair as defined in claim 1 comprising arms formed of resilient sheet material, each secured to the back of the chair against detachment therefrom at a single point.

5. A chair comprising a first unitary, resilient and another edge secured to the seat portion of.

said first part, said parts being secured together exclusively along lines extending transversely of the chair.

HERBERT v. TI-IADEN. REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 148,350 Cole Mar. 10, 1874 1,329,485 Wanner Feb. 3,1920 2,290,346 Michaelis July 31, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 438,081 Great Britain of 1935 805,612 France of 1936 

